When executing the task

task test << {
    file('test').withWriter {
        new groovy.xml.MarkupBuilder(it).root {
            properties()
        }
    }
}

with Gradle 1.0, I get the message

The AbstractTask.getDynamicObjectHelper() method has been deprecated and will be removed in the next version of Gradle. Please use the getAsDynamicObject() method instead.

This happens because when the "properties" is handled, the properties of the "test" task are retrieved. During this, getValue() for all the properties is called which gives the message for "dynamicObjectHelper" property.
Nevertheless the resulting markup correctly has the "properties" tag like expected.
But the point is, why are the properties retrieved at all? It should not be a retrieval of the properties but a label. I also tried to use curly braces instead of parentheses and to enclose "properties" in single quotes, double quotes and slashes which should also make it be used as label and not property reference, but it did not change behaviour. I was not able to make it just use "properties" as label and not resolve it as reference.
Even declaring a variable "def propString = 'properties'" and then using '"$propString"' in the MarkupBuilder gives the same message.